Mitch
Crawled Through 5 FB Fields
Dear Mr. Michael Bidwill:
I sent you a letter a couple of days ago and I have yet to hear back from you. I am not simply going to go away. In fact, until you clean up the mess that is currently your "All-In" version of the Arizona Cardinals, I will be like Andy Dufresne in pursuit of building the Brooks Hadelin Memorial Library. If you remain unresponsive, you can count on at least two letters a week. And as you can see, these letters will not come just from me---they will come from many of the other Bidwillshank inmates whom you are holding captive and subjecting to cruel and unusual punishment.
There were several items that I did not broach in my first letter that I would now like to address.
if you are really interested in understanding the causes for the extreme amount of frustration that I and other Cardinal fans are feeling---then maybe you can offer an explanation and, better yet, a solution for some of these causes.
NOTE: To readers who don't like long posts: Here's the short version---
1. Ist Round Tackles who should be guards: Leonard Davis & Levi Brown
2. Is Kevin Kolb the next Matt Leinart?
3. Is Kolb too skittish to succeed?
4. Why can't Russ Grimm groom tackles?
5. Why does Grimm have no presence on the sideline?
6. is Grimm at odds with his position and with Whisenhunt, and the Dink and Dunk?
7. Why does a soft team like the Cardinals trade away its tougher players?
8. Will AZ and the U of P become one of the biggest fall tourist attractions in the USA?
9. Is Mr. Michael Bidwill tough enough to make the tough decisions?
10. Will the Cardinals try to make a trade before Tuesday for DE Robert Mathis---a player who can get the game-winning---sealing sacks? he has over 75 career sacks, is only 29 and a UFA to be. One of the best edge threats in the league.
Deja Vu All Over Again---Cases in Point:
1. Drafting 1st Round Tackles: The last two first round tackles that you have drafted were Leonard Davis and Lev Brown. Coincidentally, both players chose to wear the #75 jersey---and even worse, both players were/are not suited to play left tackle. I know it. The Cardinal fans know it. The national media knows it. Everyone who understands football knows it---except Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm. And if they don't know it, therefore YOU don't know it---or are not going to do anything about it.
Before I expound on the Whisenhunt/Grimm debacle---it's one thing to get the first round tackle thing wrong once---but to get it wrong twice?
The Cowboys scooped up Leonard Davis and put him at RG where he belonged and Davis suddenly emerges as a Pro Bowl player. The Cardinal rationale was: "he makes too much money to to play guard." Was it too much money to pay for a Pro Bowl caliber player regardless of where he plays?
Now---we are apt to see the same thing with Levi Brown. You can't keep him in his current contract (Antrel Rolle Deja Vu All Over Again Part II)---thus you are going to release him---and he will sign with a team that believes he can be a good guard. Probably with the Seahawks or some wiser team like that.
With as stubborn as Whisenhunt and Grimm are (guess you learned that the hard way in the Leinart debacle)---Levi Brown will leave here without the team knowing what his talents are as a guard.
And then there's the issue of Grimm himself---the coach who has been lauded as one of the premier offensive line coaches in the NFL. The coach you decided to pay as an assistant head coach---which signified a breakthrough in what your family has traditionally allotted for assistant coaches...which was great to see!
But---now that you have had five years to watch Russ Grimm at work---let me ask you these questions: (a) How come Grimm has not groomed one good tackle in his tenure here? Grimm seems good with guards---he was a perennial All-Pro guard himself---but does he have a track record of being able to groom tackles? It seems that in Pittsburgh they too had yearly issues with their offensive tackles....and the way Whisenhunt refuses to offer his tackles help, are we going to have to continue to see gruesome hits on Cardinal QBs? (b) How is it that during the biggest game in the history of the Arizona Cardinals, Russ Grimm is out on the field during half-time watching Bruce Springsteen? Funny, because the game ended on a sack---maybe that scenario could have been addressed at half-time? (c) Do you think that Grimm is seething privately over missing out on getting the Cardinals' head coaching job---and being stuck as an assistant to Whisenhunt whom Grimm may very well consider an inferior and less deserving coach? If so, could that be the reason why Grimm doesn't appear like a guy whose heart is fully invested in the job?
The other question is this: Do you think it is even remotely possible that Grimm embraces Whisenhunt's dink and dunk philosophy of offensive football? Grimm was THE HOG. Hogs want to pound the rock---not play a Mickey Mouse version of Dink and Dunk. Could this be another reason why Grimm is not all that into his job in Arizona? When you watch him on the sidelines during games, he almost has NO presence. For a coach and player of his stature, how can that be? Plus, isn't he supposed to be the assistant head coach?
2. Drafting First Round QBs. You drafted Matt Leinart---and we now know that that decision will go down as one of the worst in the history of the franchise, as you got virtually zero return on a huge investment. Now---while you didn't technically draft QB Kevin Kolb, you basically gave up a 1st (by trading another 1st round pick in DRC and drafting his replacement in the first round this year) and a 2nd round pick for Kolb as well. And then you signed Kolb---a player who has only started 7 games prior to this year)---to a $65M contract. You said this past week that you did so because your scouts all believed in Kolb. And while WR Larry Fitzgerald isn't technically a scout, we all know that Fitzgerald worked Kolb out the way a scout would and sent along his thumbs up.
My focus in all of the digging I did this off-season was to address the issue of SOFTNESS---which I consider to be the number one problem with the players and the coaches, and have felt this way throughout all of Whisenhunt's 5 years---fact is, Whisenhunt's defenses don't tackle, they don't shed blocks (still can't get over watching 5'10 Percy Harvin taking out Rhodes and Wilson on AP's first 2 TDs) they don't cover, and they wilt under pressure---put it this way, it wasn't the Cardinal offense Chris Collinsworth was alluding to when he called the Cardinals the "worst playoff team ever."
But last year, until John Skelton played QB, the offense was alarmingly SOFT as well.
So I went on a scouting mission and tried to find the toughest players in the draft and in free agency. I wrote a series of blogs here called "Cardinal Tough" where I addressed every position.
When I was doing my due diligence on Kevin Kolb---the one question mark that stood out more than anything else was his toughness. Pundits were questioning it, the vast majority of Eagle fans called him "skittish." And then everyone was wondering---why would the Eagles be so anxious to trade Kolb when they have an injury prone starting QB who is getting on in years?
Now--mind you---who is the toughest QB the Arizona Cardinals have ever had? The one thing I know for certainty is that Kurt Warner's toughness, more than anything else, allowed for the greatness we saw during that three year stretch. So, in my mind, that's the first quality I was looking for.
Now that we've seen Kolb for 5 games---have we ever seen an NFL QB play in reverse the way he does? It's totally unacceptable. Sure, many will blame the offensive line...and that's quite understandable---but Kolb runs backward when there is no need to run backward---more often than not.
And what's very frustrating is that the one thing more than any other that I was so delighted with when watching John Skelton last year is that he looks as fearless in the pocket as Ben Roethlisberger. Skelton doesn't even think twice about hanging in there---and---he has a good feel for sensing pressure.
Yet---now that you have made such an expensive financial commitment to Kolb---will John Skelton even get a legitimate shot at the job?
It would be great if Kevin Kolb gets comfortable in the offense and proves his doubters wrong. But what if he doesn't? And how long will it take---a couple of years? to give John Skelton a chance?
Even worse---these coaches have Richard Bartel in front of Skelton. And while Bartel had a good pre-season---he too looks skittish in the pocket, and did so especially in junk time no less last week.
3. Trading away TOUGHNESS. For a team that is soft---it is only going to get softer if the organization doesn't do everything it can to hang on to its toughest players. In some way I see your trading of RB Tim Hightower as a deja vu all over again scenario (see Anquan Boldin). Yes, Hightower has the fumbling issue---but here is a guy who RAN OVER S Brian Dawkins for the most important TD in Cardinals' history. Hightower runs hard and tough---and his 4.8 yards per carry last year is an indication of how hard he runs---plus he does all the other RB things well---he's a very good blocker (ask Kerry Rhodes) and he's a good receiver (63 catches two years ago for 428 yards) that is, if he plays for a QB who is accurate and can throw with some touch.
The good news is that Beanie Wells is running hard and tough this year---but---this team would still be a tougher team with Hightower on it---and, as much as I like Ryan Williams---it could be a tougher team on defense with one of the better early 2nd round defensive players who were on the board.
The point is this---you spent a 1st rounder on Wells, after spending a 5th rounder on Hightower (for which you got outstanding returns) and a 7th rounder on LaRod Stephens-Howling (this kid is tough!)---how in the world is it even feasible, with all the other glaring weaknesses on the team, that you go ahead and draft yet another RB with the #38 pick in this year's draft? is it just an admission of past draft failures?
4. All-In? If this year you were "All-In", is it reasonable to say that last year you were "All-Out"? Or "Mostly-Out"? With all the money you saved last year---you now have an opportunity to pay back the fans by getting the organization right, especially if it means eating Whisenhunt's and Graves' contracts.
We need a GM and HC who know how to build a tough, disciplined and smart football team. We do not have that in Arizona and by now it is plainly obvious. What else is obvious is how U of P is now going to become one of the great fall tourist attractions in the USA as fans from the Cardinals' opponents scoop up as many abandoned tickets as they can. This is great for the Arizona Hotel and Tourism industry---but it is a major step backwards for the Arizona Cardinals.
As I said in my last letter, I will be forever grateful to you if you step forward and get this mess straightened out. I guess what we are going to see is how tough you are---because you are going to have to make some tough decisions....and if you don't make any, it looks like you are going to continue to lose your ticket holders.
Sincerely yours,
Mitch
P.S. There's one personnel move you can make right now that would be a huge boost for the defense. The Colts are fielding trade offers for free agent to be DE Robert Mathis. Mathis has over 75 career sacks---he is only 29, How about offering the Colts your 5th rounder and signing Mathis to a three year contract. This guy is TOUGH. And he can do something no player on the roster can: he can rush the edge with authority...and better yet, register the game winning or sealing sacks. Plus---the market for UFA edge rushers next year is very thin again.
I sent you a letter a couple of days ago and I have yet to hear back from you. I am not simply going to go away. In fact, until you clean up the mess that is currently your "All-In" version of the Arizona Cardinals, I will be like Andy Dufresne in pursuit of building the Brooks Hadelin Memorial Library. If you remain unresponsive, you can count on at least two letters a week. And as you can see, these letters will not come just from me---they will come from many of the other Bidwillshank inmates whom you are holding captive and subjecting to cruel and unusual punishment.
There were several items that I did not broach in my first letter that I would now like to address.
if you are really interested in understanding the causes for the extreme amount of frustration that I and other Cardinal fans are feeling---then maybe you can offer an explanation and, better yet, a solution for some of these causes.
NOTE: To readers who don't like long posts: Here's the short version---
1. Ist Round Tackles who should be guards: Leonard Davis & Levi Brown
2. Is Kevin Kolb the next Matt Leinart?
3. Is Kolb too skittish to succeed?
4. Why can't Russ Grimm groom tackles?
5. Why does Grimm have no presence on the sideline?
6. is Grimm at odds with his position and with Whisenhunt, and the Dink and Dunk?
7. Why does a soft team like the Cardinals trade away its tougher players?
8. Will AZ and the U of P become one of the biggest fall tourist attractions in the USA?
9. Is Mr. Michael Bidwill tough enough to make the tough decisions?
10. Will the Cardinals try to make a trade before Tuesday for DE Robert Mathis---a player who can get the game-winning---sealing sacks? he has over 75 career sacks, is only 29 and a UFA to be. One of the best edge threats in the league.
Deja Vu All Over Again---Cases in Point:
1. Drafting 1st Round Tackles: The last two first round tackles that you have drafted were Leonard Davis and Lev Brown. Coincidentally, both players chose to wear the #75 jersey---and even worse, both players were/are not suited to play left tackle. I know it. The Cardinal fans know it. The national media knows it. Everyone who understands football knows it---except Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm. And if they don't know it, therefore YOU don't know it---or are not going to do anything about it.
Before I expound on the Whisenhunt/Grimm debacle---it's one thing to get the first round tackle thing wrong once---but to get it wrong twice?
The Cowboys scooped up Leonard Davis and put him at RG where he belonged and Davis suddenly emerges as a Pro Bowl player. The Cardinal rationale was: "he makes too much money to to play guard." Was it too much money to pay for a Pro Bowl caliber player regardless of where he plays?
Now---we are apt to see the same thing with Levi Brown. You can't keep him in his current contract (Antrel Rolle Deja Vu All Over Again Part II)---thus you are going to release him---and he will sign with a team that believes he can be a good guard. Probably with the Seahawks or some wiser team like that.
With as stubborn as Whisenhunt and Grimm are (guess you learned that the hard way in the Leinart debacle)---Levi Brown will leave here without the team knowing what his talents are as a guard.
And then there's the issue of Grimm himself---the coach who has been lauded as one of the premier offensive line coaches in the NFL. The coach you decided to pay as an assistant head coach---which signified a breakthrough in what your family has traditionally allotted for assistant coaches...which was great to see!
But---now that you have had five years to watch Russ Grimm at work---let me ask you these questions: (a) How come Grimm has not groomed one good tackle in his tenure here? Grimm seems good with guards---he was a perennial All-Pro guard himself---but does he have a track record of being able to groom tackles? It seems that in Pittsburgh they too had yearly issues with their offensive tackles....and the way Whisenhunt refuses to offer his tackles help, are we going to have to continue to see gruesome hits on Cardinal QBs? (b) How is it that during the biggest game in the history of the Arizona Cardinals, Russ Grimm is out on the field during half-time watching Bruce Springsteen? Funny, because the game ended on a sack---maybe that scenario could have been addressed at half-time? (c) Do you think that Grimm is seething privately over missing out on getting the Cardinals' head coaching job---and being stuck as an assistant to Whisenhunt whom Grimm may very well consider an inferior and less deserving coach? If so, could that be the reason why Grimm doesn't appear like a guy whose heart is fully invested in the job?
The other question is this: Do you think it is even remotely possible that Grimm embraces Whisenhunt's dink and dunk philosophy of offensive football? Grimm was THE HOG. Hogs want to pound the rock---not play a Mickey Mouse version of Dink and Dunk. Could this be another reason why Grimm is not all that into his job in Arizona? When you watch him on the sidelines during games, he almost has NO presence. For a coach and player of his stature, how can that be? Plus, isn't he supposed to be the assistant head coach?
2. Drafting First Round QBs. You drafted Matt Leinart---and we now know that that decision will go down as one of the worst in the history of the franchise, as you got virtually zero return on a huge investment. Now---while you didn't technically draft QB Kevin Kolb, you basically gave up a 1st (by trading another 1st round pick in DRC and drafting his replacement in the first round this year) and a 2nd round pick for Kolb as well. And then you signed Kolb---a player who has only started 7 games prior to this year)---to a $65M contract. You said this past week that you did so because your scouts all believed in Kolb. And while WR Larry Fitzgerald isn't technically a scout, we all know that Fitzgerald worked Kolb out the way a scout would and sent along his thumbs up.
My focus in all of the digging I did this off-season was to address the issue of SOFTNESS---which I consider to be the number one problem with the players and the coaches, and have felt this way throughout all of Whisenhunt's 5 years---fact is, Whisenhunt's defenses don't tackle, they don't shed blocks (still can't get over watching 5'10 Percy Harvin taking out Rhodes and Wilson on AP's first 2 TDs) they don't cover, and they wilt under pressure---put it this way, it wasn't the Cardinal offense Chris Collinsworth was alluding to when he called the Cardinals the "worst playoff team ever."
But last year, until John Skelton played QB, the offense was alarmingly SOFT as well.
So I went on a scouting mission and tried to find the toughest players in the draft and in free agency. I wrote a series of blogs here called "Cardinal Tough" where I addressed every position.
When I was doing my due diligence on Kevin Kolb---the one question mark that stood out more than anything else was his toughness. Pundits were questioning it, the vast majority of Eagle fans called him "skittish." And then everyone was wondering---why would the Eagles be so anxious to trade Kolb when they have an injury prone starting QB who is getting on in years?
Now--mind you---who is the toughest QB the Arizona Cardinals have ever had? The one thing I know for certainty is that Kurt Warner's toughness, more than anything else, allowed for the greatness we saw during that three year stretch. So, in my mind, that's the first quality I was looking for.
Now that we've seen Kolb for 5 games---have we ever seen an NFL QB play in reverse the way he does? It's totally unacceptable. Sure, many will blame the offensive line...and that's quite understandable---but Kolb runs backward when there is no need to run backward---more often than not.
And what's very frustrating is that the one thing more than any other that I was so delighted with when watching John Skelton last year is that he looks as fearless in the pocket as Ben Roethlisberger. Skelton doesn't even think twice about hanging in there---and---he has a good feel for sensing pressure.
Yet---now that you have made such an expensive financial commitment to Kolb---will John Skelton even get a legitimate shot at the job?
It would be great if Kevin Kolb gets comfortable in the offense and proves his doubters wrong. But what if he doesn't? And how long will it take---a couple of years? to give John Skelton a chance?
Even worse---these coaches have Richard Bartel in front of Skelton. And while Bartel had a good pre-season---he too looks skittish in the pocket, and did so especially in junk time no less last week.
3. Trading away TOUGHNESS. For a team that is soft---it is only going to get softer if the organization doesn't do everything it can to hang on to its toughest players. In some way I see your trading of RB Tim Hightower as a deja vu all over again scenario (see Anquan Boldin). Yes, Hightower has the fumbling issue---but here is a guy who RAN OVER S Brian Dawkins for the most important TD in Cardinals' history. Hightower runs hard and tough---and his 4.8 yards per carry last year is an indication of how hard he runs---plus he does all the other RB things well---he's a very good blocker (ask Kerry Rhodes) and he's a good receiver (63 catches two years ago for 428 yards) that is, if he plays for a QB who is accurate and can throw with some touch.
The good news is that Beanie Wells is running hard and tough this year---but---this team would still be a tougher team with Hightower on it---and, as much as I like Ryan Williams---it could be a tougher team on defense with one of the better early 2nd round defensive players who were on the board.
The point is this---you spent a 1st rounder on Wells, after spending a 5th rounder on Hightower (for which you got outstanding returns) and a 7th rounder on LaRod Stephens-Howling (this kid is tough!)---how in the world is it even feasible, with all the other glaring weaknesses on the team, that you go ahead and draft yet another RB with the #38 pick in this year's draft? is it just an admission of past draft failures?
4. All-In? If this year you were "All-In", is it reasonable to say that last year you were "All-Out"? Or "Mostly-Out"? With all the money you saved last year---you now have an opportunity to pay back the fans by getting the organization right, especially if it means eating Whisenhunt's and Graves' contracts.
We need a GM and HC who know how to build a tough, disciplined and smart football team. We do not have that in Arizona and by now it is plainly obvious. What else is obvious is how U of P is now going to become one of the great fall tourist attractions in the USA as fans from the Cardinals' opponents scoop up as many abandoned tickets as they can. This is great for the Arizona Hotel and Tourism industry---but it is a major step backwards for the Arizona Cardinals.
As I said in my last letter, I will be forever grateful to you if you step forward and get this mess straightened out. I guess what we are going to see is how tough you are---because you are going to have to make some tough decisions....and if you don't make any, it looks like you are going to continue to lose your ticket holders.
Sincerely yours,
Mitch
P.S. There's one personnel move you can make right now that would be a huge boost for the defense. The Colts are fielding trade offers for free agent to be DE Robert Mathis. Mathis has over 75 career sacks---he is only 29, How about offering the Colts your 5th rounder and signing Mathis to a three year contract. This guy is TOUGH. And he can do something no player on the roster can: he can rush the edge with authority...and better yet, register the game winning or sealing sacks. Plus---the market for UFA edge rushers next year is very thin again.
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